Remembering moms who have passed on

Remembering moms who have passed on

Remembering moms who have passed on

Vases full of spring flowers and helium-filled balloons dotted the landscape, making a sunny Sunday afternoon seem even brighter.

The offerings of affection adored the various headstones, drawing attention to the fact that the mothers laid to rest here may be gone but they certainly are not forgotten, especially on Mother’s Day.

Some of the sons and daughters who came to share the day at Rose Hill Cemetery in Columbia sat in silence, peering off into the distance as a light breeze made the shade enjoyable and the growing warmth of the direct sunlight at least tolerable.

A couple in the distance went about fussing over the flower arrangements, plucking weeds and even polishing the granite marker before sitting down to relax, leaning their backs against the headstone with their heads tilted back and eyes closed as if in prayer.

It may have seemed like an odd time and place to share a story with a stranger, but those approached didn’t seem to mind. In fact they seemed to appreciate the opportunity.

“I just call her the ultimate mom,” Alice Baugus of Columbia said as she looked lovingly at the headstone engraved with the name Roberta Scribner, her mother. “I can only say she was the best mother and an awesome cook.”

It is her first Mother’s Day without her mother, who passed away in March. Scribner had nine children and worked as a cook at various restaurants around town during her lifetime, Baugus said.

“She loved all her children. We were really, really blessed and she touched everyone she met,” she said.

Across the gravel and grass lane Jeremy Glaser of Thompson’s Station rearranged small bunches of flowers around the base of his mother’s headstone engraved with the name Linda Sue Foster Hurd.

She’s one of three people in the family with four names, he explained.

Glaser hesitated just a moment when asked how long she had been gone.

“Since 2004. I had to look at the headstone, it just doesn’t seem that long ago,” he said.

Ask to tell a story about his mother, Glaser replied, “Where to begin?” before trailing off in thought.

“She really liked animals. I think that’s where I got it from,” he explained. “She use to imitate an orangutan. That was pretty funny and I can still see her doing that in my mind.”

He smiled as he told the story, although admitting his mother might not have approved of him revealing such behavior to someone she didn’t know.

“I’ll probably get stung by a wasp or something when I leave just for doing it (telling the story),” he said.

In the small town of Williamsport only two dozen or so headstones make up the fledgling cemetery adjacent to the Baptist Church.

Sisters Diane Hutcherson of Lawrenceburg and Deborah Chessor of Columbia took a break from placing flowers and sought refuge from the hot sun under the limbs of a shade tree.

Their mother’s final resting place is next to the grave of their sister who succumbed to brain cancer in 2002. Their mother, Odielene McNeese died in March.

“We had her buried here because she didn’t want our sister to be here all alone,” Hutcherson said.

McNeese had been a waitress all her life and thoroughly enjoyed meeting people. She was so good at what she did, her customers often followed her from job to job, the sisters said.

“Mother never was boring. She stood out. And she knew everybody,” Hutcherson said. “If momma met a person just once and that person passed on, her and mamma (grandma) would go to their funeral.”

Their mother and grandmother were so sociable, in fact, that their favorite pastime was to sit in the parking lot at the hospital eating a Nacho Bell Grande from Taco Bell just to see if knew anyone going in or out, Hutcherson said.

“If they did see someone they knew, they would hop right out and go see what was going on,” she explained.

Chessor said their mother always stood out in a crowd because of her clothes and jewelry, but also will be remembered for “twinkling eyes and her food.”

“She was the best cook ever, while she was able to cook,” she said. “And she loved to can stuff in the summer.”

For Mother’s Day, Hutcherson gave Chessor a jeweled covered strawberry clock on a gold chain to hang around her neck.

“It belonged to our mother and I wanted her to have it,” Hutcherson said.

Asked what one word described their mother the best, they both replied, “blessed.”

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